I wrote:
> Revealing ip numbers to sysops doesn't really
compromise anyone's
> anonymity. You can't generally get a person's name or address or
> anything similar from an ip number. At best, you can trace the ip to
> a particular internet provider, but that's about it.
Brion Vibber wrote:
And the provider (employer, university) can often
trace the IP and
time of connection to a particular customer (employee, student).
Sure. In your opinion, does this mean that the risk of making it
possible for sysops to get ip numbers is too high?
My view is that lots of people seem to think that tracing an ip number
back to a name is easy. It isn't. To get the provider to do so is
normally quite difficult, oten involving a court order.
If we were providing a service for abused spouses, etc., then I would
argue that extraordinary privacy and anonymity measures would be
justified. But in the current context, I don't see that this is much
of a risk.
--Jimbo